According to the president of the board of directors of ARC, Eugénia Pereira, who took stock of five years of competition policy in Angola (2018 – 2023), the investigations resulted in sanctioning processes and condemnatory decisions for 'gun jumping' practices (operations concentration without prior notification) and vertical agreements, which is the case of abuse of economic dependence by imposing resale prices.
Eugénia Pereira stressed that the sectors most covered were oil and gas, food production and distribution and beverages.
In the period in question, ARC issued 15 recommendations to the Government for the telecommunications, land transport, urban solid waste management, electronic payment services, electricity, oil, insurance, banking, civil construction, civil aviation, public procurement and port sectors.
Between 2018 and the current year, ARC processed a total of 56 processes, 20 of which were within the scope of the Angolan privatization program, the majority of which were company acquisition operations (93 percent) and company mergers (7 percent).
The most covered sector, with the highest number of notifications, was oil (13 percent), followed by agriculture (7 percent), banking (4 percent) and construction (4 percent).
In her opening speech, the president of ARC said that the State, using economic regulation, has sought to guarantee the regular functioning of the market, mitigating any flaws that may exist in it and that are likely to affect its efficiency.
The official highlighted that competition policy entails multiple challenges, related to a society in constant change, also influenced by the context of the contraction in economic activity worldwide, resulting from the covid-19 pandemic, the conflicts in Ukraine and, more recently, between Israel and Hamas.
